I write today to remember two remarkable men whose lives intersected in an unexpected and meaningful way. In their own distinct fashions, both men loved God, loved their country, and loved the land itself. Each, in his own sphere, left behind a legacy worthy of preservation and respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first was Captain John \u201cBlackjack\u201d Bartlett\u2014known to many as \u201cThe Maverick\u201d\u2014who passed away several months ago at the age of 93. He earned his nickname for the toughness he showed toward his surgical residents, most of whom, in time, came to admire and even love him. Trained at the University of Michigan, he was an exceptional surgeon and an even more formidable teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jack was raised on the Double D (DD) Ranch in Montana\u2019s Gallatin Valley, land homesteaded by his great-grandparents in the late 1870s, not long after the Battle of the Little Bighorn. He grew up during the Great Depression, hunting and fishing to help sustain his family, from the land. In 1951, he joined the Navy as a corpsman and served four years, including time aboard the USS Comfort during the Korean War. It was there that a physician encouraged him to pursue medical school\u2014a suggestion that would shape the rest of his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After two decades as a general surgeon, Jack returned to the Navy and became Chief of Surgery at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital. Our paths crossed when he was deployed again to the USS Comfort in 1990 and I relieved him as a reservist at Oak Knoll\u2014on two separate occasions. Over time, our professional relationship grew into a friendship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Years later, over cocktails at Fort Sam Houston, he shared something unexpected: he had once served as the reviewing officer in an Article 32 proceeding concerning my own conduct during an operation I performed on a Russian sailor in Iceland. The matter was ultimately dismissed, but the revelation added an unusual dimension to our shared history. In time, Jack invited me to join him teaching at the Defense Medical Readiness Training Institute in San Antonio. For nearly twenty years, neither of us accepted a salary for that work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second man is Ted Turner\u2014someone whose politics I often disagreed with, yet for whom I hold genuine respect. Like Jack, he was a maverick in his own way. The son of a billboard entrepreneur, Turner never graduated from Brown University, but he went on to build CNN, own the Atlanta Braves, and help shape modern media. In 2004, Brown awarded him an honorary degree. With characteristic humor, he remarked that he could no longer remember the name of the young woman whose presence in his dorm room had led to his departure decades earlier, but he still wanted to thank her!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jack Bartlett was a devout Christian\u2014humble, disciplined, and deeply grateful for the life he had been given. I recall walking the old Double D Ranch with him, where we prayed together. At one point, I asked who owned the property now. \u201cTed Turner,\u201d he replied. He spoke not with regret, but with appreciation, noting how well the land had been cared for. That day, he showed me his favorite fishing spots, and we watched a vast herd of buffalo move across the valley\u2014a sight I will not forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Turner, for his part, lived a life marked by ambition, success, and, at times, contradiction. Yet he has also shown a capacity for humility. Many will remember the 1977 America\u2019s Cup, when he skippered Courageous<\/em> to victory. As the cannon sounded at the finish, Turner paused, visibly moved, and said, \u201cI am the luckiest man on earth.\u201d Such humility in triumph is rarer than humility in defeat, especially in our time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I once encountered him at a steakhouse along the Gallatin River near Big Sky. He was examining a display of ranch brands when he asked to see the Double D buckle. As he held it, I told him simply, \u201cI know the heirs to that property.\u201d He replied, \u201cI hope they\u2019re proud of how I\u2019ve taken care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In that moment, I thought of Jack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both men, in their own ways, were stewards. Neither inherited great wealth, but both understood the deeper meaning of inheritance\u2014and the responsibility it carries. Jack\u2019s legacy lives on in the hands of the many surgeons he trained, who continue to care for patients and teach others. Turner\u2019s legacy is visible in the institutions he built and, in the land, he chose to preserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their politics may have differed, but each embodied something enduringly American: a respect for opportunity, a sense of responsibility, and an understanding that what we are given is not ours to squander, but to steward\u2014in perpetuity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I write today to remember two remarkable men whose lives intersected in an unexpected and meaningful way. In their own distinct fashions, both men loved God, loved their country, and loved the land itself. Each, in his own sphere, left behind a legacy worthy of preservation and respect. The first was Captain John \u201cBlackjack\u201d Bartlett\u2014known […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":19816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1051],"tags":[1583],"class_list":["post-19815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-john-livingston","tag-ted-turner","cat-1051-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19817,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19815\/revisions\/19817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}